Following the biggest decline in public satisfaction with the NHS in almost thirty years, John Denham, MP for Southampton Itchen, has called on David Cameron to live up to his promise to protect the NHS.

The extent of the fall in satisfaction in the NHS since the Tories came to power:

Results from the annual British Social Attitudes survey show that public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen from 70% last year to 58% – the largest annual drop since the survey started in 1983.

The study, funded by the King’s Fund think tank, questioned 1,096 people about their views on health care between July and November last year. It also found drops in satisfaction with GPs, inpatient & outpatient services and accident & emergency services.

During the 2010 general election campaign David Cameron promised that he would “protect frontline services” but these results show that the British public clearly believe the NHS is deteriorating on his watch.

John Denham MP for Southampton Itchen said:

“The Tories and their Lib Dem allies inherited an NHS with the highest-ever levels of public satisfaction and in their first full year in charge these levels have plummeted by a record amount.

“We’re already seeing the results of the Conservative-led Government’s damaging health policies as the numbers of people who waited longer than 18 weeks for treatment in Southampton City PCT has increased by 8%.

“The Tories’ abysmal record on the NHS also includes wasting £3 billion on a reckless top down re-organisation, scrapping Labour’s waiting time guarantees for hospital treatments and GP appointment and making a £1.2 billion real cut in funding for England’s NHS services. The NHS is simply too important to keep going backwards under the Tories.

“The lessons to be learnt from this survey are clear: people want to see their NHS properly protected and David Cameron has to change course to stop it sinking further into chaos.”